‘Fellowship!’: ‘Lord of the Rings’-Inspired Musical Parody Returns to Fullerton Stage for Spring

Jessica Peralta
Mar 26
3 min read

Steven Alcantar as Frodo, Enrique Munoz, Jr. as Sam and Brian Cook as Gandalf star in "Fellowship!" at Maverick Theater in Fullerton. Photo by Brian Newell

There are hobbits, a very important wizard, an epic journey and civilization’s fate resting on one ring. It’s the story “The Lord of the Rings” fans have all come to know and love – except for one, two … maybe a handful of differences.

“This is a parody musical, so it's a bit crazy,” said Miranda Seighman of Orange, who plays the hobbit, Pippin, in Maverick Theater’s upcoming rendition of “Fellowship!”

“It's obviously about ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movie, but it takes a little bit of the musical theater tropes and the film tropes and kind of blends them together into just like a comedy mess. It's a bit of a wild ride as far as the audience goes. You're going to be going on the journey with them.”

Maverick Theater co-owner and “Fellowship!” director Brian Newell said the theater first performed “The Lord of the Rings”-themed parody musical in 2019. He said the production was presented to him by the group who created it. The book was written by Kelly Holden-Bashar and Joel McCrary and the music is by Allen Simpson.

“They met with me and they told me about the concept and sent me the link to the music and the script. I read over it and I was like, ‘Oh, this is fantastically silly and fun,” Newell said. “It's got some really entertaining songs and the way they handle the comedy is very light, almost like a sketch comedy act like you would see on ‘Saturday Night Live’ .… It was a huge success and it sold out the whole run.”

This spring’s production runs April 4 through May 17 at the Fullerton theater. It’s recommended for ages 10 and older – whether they’re fans of the epic saga or not. Newell noted that during the original run, a large percentage of the audience had never seen the movie or read the books.

“They left going, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so funny. I had so much fun,’” he said. “And then I found out they didn't know anything about the material and I was like, ‘Well, this is great.’”

Brian J. Cook of Long Beach, who plays Gandalf, was part of the 2019 cast along with Seighman.

IMAGE 1: Steven Alcantar as Frodo in "Fellowship!" at Maverick Theater in Fullerton. IMAGE 2: Samantha Green as Legolas.

IMAGE 3: Justyn Gonzales as Strider and Samantha Green as Arwen. Photos by Brian Newell

“Gandalf is Ian McKellen, plays him in all the films, so he's kind of a character. He's this traditional wizard character, of course, with the ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ flair that we've come to know,” Cook said. “But the fun thing about this character is that he's in and out of his own character all the time .… He's very, very stately in one moment, and then he becomes very, very childlike and silly because, of course, we are doing a parody.”

Seighman, who is a professional voice teacher, said she’s a big fan of “The Lord of the Rings” movies and enjoys helping bring the story to life in some way. She said her character, Pippin, is one of the hobbits that go on the journey with Frodo, one of the main characters. Pippin loves food and fun.

“He's the youngest one, so I just kind of try and keep in mind like if you were a teenager being plucked into a mystical journey, what kind of mindset would you be in? What kind of things would be your priority and snacks, road trip snacks, you know what I mean?” she said. “It's kind of like highlighting the character traits that stick out the most. It's kind of like you see them and you amp them up to an 11 instead. So parodying all of those hobbit quirks and even just quirks throughout the world building that Tolkien creates, this elaborate world that has a lot of language and creatures and things like that. It's just kind of shining a light on those and hyping them up and pointing out the funny bits in them.”

Newell said when it comes down to it, it’s all about having fun.

“We're just here to present a story that’s been around for decades,” he said. “It's become a part of pop culture .… It’s a great night out for fun and laughter. And that's it, it’s pretty simple. The formula is simple and what we're trying to achieve is simple, so come out and have a good time.”